Government accused of wasting sports participation money after London 2012 Olympics: 'Precious little to show'
New report from Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticises the DCMS and Sport England over money intended to increase participation in sport; PAC chair says there had been "precious little to show by way of legacy" from London 2012; DCMS and Sport England refute claims
Saturday 7 January 2023 13:00, UK
The Government has been accused of wasting money intended to boost grassroots participation and physical activity levels after the London 2012 Olympics.
A new report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published on Sunday criticises the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and grassroots funding body Sport England over what it sees as an "unacceptable" lack of oversight of precisely how and where public money designed to get people active is being spent.
PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier said there had been "precious little to show by way of legacy" from London 2012 and added: "The lack of vision and drive has seen Sport England pay out £1.5billion of taxpayers' money without knowing where two-thirds of it went, and there's a paltry 1.2 per cent increase in active adults to show for it (between November 2016 and 2019).
"More waste, more loss of desperately needed public money. As the cost-of-living crisis bites hard, DCMS must set out what it will do differently to achieve change where it has not succeeded."
Sport England is understood to regard the PAC's claim that it does not know where its investment goes as inaccurate.
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A spokesperson for the organisation said: "Sport England invests public money responsibly and transparently, recording and publishing data on all grant recipients, including location data right down to postcode level. This is all clearly available online, with information on where every pound that we spend goes."
Sport England is working to understand in greater detail where its national investments to governing bodies like the Football Association, the Lawn Tennis Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board are having a local impact without introducing too much red tape.
In all the report makes seven recommendations to DCMS and Sport England, who it states have made "little progress" in tackling barriers to participation.
Sport England also refutes this, pointing out that pre-pandemic, activity levels were at a record high across England and that its recent Active Lives data showed that participation was now recovering fast, with children and young people bouncing back already to pre-pandemic levels.
Sport England says its 'Uniting the Movement' strategy launched in 2021 is dedicated to investing in partnerships and programmes to reduce inactivity and tackle stubborn inequalities.
The PAC was also not convinced DCMS currently works effectively with other Government departments and industry to integrate physical activity into everyday life.
However, the Sport For Development Coalition network, which is supported by Sport England, is actively demonstrating to a range of Government departments the positive social and economic benefits of the targeted sport-based interventions its members are involved in.
The Coalition's executive director Hitesh Patel said: "Our ambition is that future measures to increase participation in sport and physical activity, and reduce inequalities, should always look beyond participation alone and consider the wider benefits of sport to society."
Coalition members are currently working to distribute £5million of funding from the Ministry of Justice aimed at using sport to prevent young people becoming involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.
A DCMS spokesperson responded: "This government has made the nation's health and fitness a priority, and people's activity levels were at all-time highs before the pandemic.
"Through the pandemic we provided £1billion to support leisure sectors such as public pools and leisure centres as well as grassroots and professional sports, and we continue to drive up participation, particularly for under-represented groups.
"Activity levels for young people have now returned to pre-pandemic levels and we continue to work with Sport England to invest in sport for all, having recently announced £320m for schools and more than £260m to build or upgrade thousands of grassroots facilities.
"We will shortly be publishing a new sport strategy setting out our ambition to continue to increase activity rates and will respond to the Committee's report in due course."
